Scarcity
2025 has been (apparently) my year of LinkedIn. I decided to actually take time in understanding and using the platform - which in turns means that I am getting riled up about posts about fundraising. So it’s time to talk about “scarcity mindset” in the nonprofit world.
Scarcity mindset is a phrase thrown at nonprofit organizations that work under the assumption of less, not more. That the resources they want and need are not available and that they, and their teams, need to learn to survive with less. The charge is to reframe how they function to work in abundance - to assume that the world they want is possible and to move forward allowing themselves to ask for what they need to make that dream a reality. To remember that the funding exists, that new realities can be built, and to channel their inner mediocre white man.
There is a lot of truth in this criticism. Many nonprofit leaders work under the assumption that they cannot get more than what they have and that, in turn, stymies their ability to do the work that they are meant to do. However, the solution of this is always directed at the nonprofit - that the team think more expansively, that they demand more, that they change their outlook on the world. Leaders are often accused of using scarcity as a means of mythologizing their work - of excusing underpaying and overworking their employees because another options is not available. There are, of course, many ways that leaders can push back - they can insist on doing less to be in line with what is actually on hand and ask for more. But to act as if this is a way of leaders mythologizing their work ignores the systemic ways we got here.
the solution is not in the hands of the nonprofit worker. It’s in philanthropy.
I was recently gifted month-long access to a grants database. The platform costs anywhere from $2,200-$6,000 a year to give you what should otherwise be basic information about grantmakers. I found dozens of new options and started sending links out left and right - it felt like I was given the keys to the kingdom. And then the trial will end and I’ll be in many ways back where I started.
The idea that funding is not available, that people must be overworked to justify their salaries, that more must be done with less is not a theory that nonprofits created to excuse their practices, it is a reality that philanthropy and capitalism have insisted on - and now are leveraging to blame those impacted.
It is notoriously extremely difficult to raise money for progressive causes, especially if you are a Black or Brown leader. Organizations often scrape together dozens of small grants to make up their budget - $500 here, $10,000 there, a process which is incredibly time consuming and competitive. Funders demand laborious application and reporting processes for grants that, if the grant was allowed to cover “overhead” would be negated by the entire process. A leader and two program managers spending 15 hours on a $5,000 grant would, realistically, mean that there was no money left to spend on actual programs. But of course, that’s where restrictions come in. The funding cannot be spent on the labor of applying and reporting - but also that work must be completed in order for the check to clear and (hopefully) be written again next year. Already we’ve created a system of overwork and underpay, and that’s for one check. Over the last few decades, progressive funders by and large fund in one-year cycles specific programs or projects with parameters around how money can be spent, though tides are shifting. It is more possible than ever to find multi-year (meaning 2-3) grants for general operating support - but it is by no means the norm.
Scarcity mindset exists because philanthropy has intentionally been set up to create huge barriers to entry. Without specific knowledge, training, access to wealth and platforms like the one I have been using (for now), finding funding is a long, very uphill battle and the payoffs can sometimes feel like pyrrhic victories.
You know who doesn’t have a scarcity mindset? The right.
The right does not exist in the same philanthropy world that the left does. The right decided long ago that they would invest large and long-term in the work they wanted done. This means multi-million dollar gifts over 10 or 20 years to execute in creating the world they wish to build. That in turn gives their leaders not only the freedom from fundraising at all times, but the belief that the resources are, indeed, available to them.
So now what.
It is the job of philanthropy to make organizations stop feeling like they are drowning and demanding unrealistic systems and processes. This includes:
Simplifying application and reporting systems - allow people to submit applications they have sent to other funders or standardized forms (shoutout JustFund) and accept annual reports or a simple phone call as your grant report.
Fund general operating for multiple years. If you are a funder who routinely renews grants, cut out the middle man and just commit to long-term funding instead of requiring renewal applications every year. That time should be spent on the work, not on bureaucracy.
Make yourself easy to find. Bulk up your SEO, streamline information, be incredibly transparent about what funding is available, when and how.
If you must be invite only (deep sigh but I get it), make it possible for people to find a way to get an invite. Create a point of contact, create an online form. If that is not possible, be incredibly proactive in finding potential grantees and doing outreach.
Increase your annual giving, now. The minimum distribution required for foundations is 5%. Many foundations take this as a directive, not a minimum. Philanthropy continues to hold on to funding for a “rainy day” while nonprofits stand in a monsoon.
It’s ok if spending down means the end of the nonprofit world.
The goal of both philanthropy and nonprofits should be to not exist. We are scaffolding holding up infrastructure the government should be doing. If spending more now means that we can create a world where basic health and social services do not need to be held in non-governmental organizations but can be broad-scale, systemically offered, that is a win for all of us. I love this sector and I love this work but I would love more to never have to it it again.